French multinational manufacturer of automobiles, PSA Group, plans to transfer 2,000 German jobs in Ruesselsheim, Germany to Segula Technologies in an alliance designed to safeguard local research and development jobs, PSA's Opel division said on Wednesday.

PSA, behind the Peugeot, Citroen and Opel brands, said in June it was preparing to suspend activities in the Islamic republic, its chief foreign market by volume, noting those units account for "less than one percent of sales".

Last month, Paris ended the Bollore Group's contract to operate its Autolib electric vehicles due to financial difficulties at the state-funded scheme. Its nearly 4,000 cars are set to disappear from Paris roads at the end of July.

The joint venture, Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) Ltd, will assemble 3,500 units in its first year and ramp up to about 10,000 units, said Jimi Lawal, adviser to the governor of Kaduna, the northwestern state where the plant will be located.

Carmakers including Renault, Jaguar Land Rover and Peugeot have boosted revenues by over $1 billion in the past decade by using sophisticated pricing software, according to sales presentations prepared by the software vendor, Accenture, and other documents filed in a court case.

At Britain's Ellesmere Port Vauxhall factory, workers voted in favour of a deal which will give them a lump sump of $1,046 and a 1.5 per cent pay rise in January 2019, mirroring a deal agreed at the firm's southern English van site.

The protest underlined the deepening dispute between the French carmaker and staff at loss-making Opel, acquired from General Motors last year. The carmaker is already cutting thousands of jobs through voluntary departures.

Under Tavares, a former Renault executive, the Peugeot maker is demanding pay curbs and other concessions from workers at Opel, the loss-making German carmaker it bought from General Motors last year, in return for new investment.